R & R

There are many ways of going forward but only one way of standing still.

Franklin Roosevelt
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Hello Blackfoot Idaho
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Built into almost every work schedule is at least one day off a week. In the theatre it's usually Monday and it's known as the Day of Rest. If the show is still in rehearsal there won't be much rest for the actors who will be still memorizing lines and peering into the script to find threads of action and volition for their characters.

In some areas time off is known as Rest and Recreation (R&R), also known as Rest and Relaxation, or Rehabilitation, or even Regeneration. But I have a different translation of those initials, it's Rest and , Rest and Recreation .

I don't know where the rest part comes if your recreation is playing golf or tennis, going to the beach, taking the kids to the amusement park or firing up the back yard barbecue and inviting the neighbors over, unless it's when you crash, exhausted from all the fun you had.

In my neighborhood, on the first nice day of Spring, the repair work begins. Lawns are being mowed, hedges trimmed, wood chopped, leaves blown around, roofs fixed, windows replaced, gutters cleaned and such. The neighbors are very busy getting the place fixed up so they can enjoy the nice weather. The problem is that the repair work goes on until the last of Autumn. There is no sitting in the back yard and enjoying the cool breeze and the gentle chirping of birds because someone is repairing something and making a racket doing it. Which is why I usually stay indoors during the day.

My house mate on the first floor, who works on a computer in an insurance agency, told me today that she has never known anyone who has as much computer trouble as I do. I spent most of Friday and Saturday morning tracking down all the places where my password is accepted because some pirate stole it and has caused me and others a lot of trouble. I think I've done it. Time will tell. But there are other things wrong that need fixing. Among them I get windows that pop up telling me I have to do things that make no sense and this is the second time I'm writing this entry because at least once a day it signs off with no warning, it did that and I lost everything I had written. More calls will have to be made to Verizon and AOL. I will spend a lot of time repairing the damage that has happened. It is much too often that in order to do the simple things I like to do here I have to clean up, fix and restore the very device that allows me to do those things.

So that's my day off. The Day of Repair.

DB - The Vagabond
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Never give up.
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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